Effects of Divorce of Children and their Education
Introduction
In today’s contemporary society there is an increase in the number of social ailments as well as the stigma that accompanies the family unit. One of the most predominant disadvantages in regard to the structure of the family is the one acquired from parental divorce. Based on the increased freedom of choice as well as an expression for both genders parental divorce has grown to be a normal trend today. However, the acceptance of these conduct fails to account for the short and the extended term consequences, particularly on children. Divorce presents a challenging emotional transition for children and education tends to be the most affected aspect due to emotional impairment (Amato & Keith, 1991). Divorce can thus be described as an event that is rather unfortunate than beneficial specifically for those with children. Based on the recent studies it has been established that more than 25 percent of parental divorce children suffers from academic, social and psychological impairment at a certain point in their existence. As a result of divorce education performance for the affected children is usually impacted in their attempt to adapt to the fresh environment.
Ending parental marriages is not just a turn off event since it is a long procedure that impacts the whole family without excluding children and this impacts all the aspects of life generally (Fagan & Churchill, 2012). Divorce normally creates negative emotions where children are usually involved in hatred, judgment, anger and the loss of both affection and love. This is a form of a Psychic implication that requires more emotional efforts from the children in adjusting to the different surrounding of being raised by one parent and lacking affections from both (Fagan & Churchill, 2012). During this phase, children begin to develop a sense of security threat and low personal esteem while comparing themselves with peers. In order to adapt to the kind of life, children are usually subjected to behavioral as well as emotional disorder. This implies that as compared to children in families that are still intact children of divorce are usually subjected to agony and one of them being reduced educational performance.
Self-esteem becomes a norm among the children based on social stigma that comes from being a divorce product. This creates a form of fear, loneliness as well as rejection which is usually triggered by hatred towards the decision made by parents without being accounted for (Furstenberg, Peterson, Zill, & Winquist Nord, 1983). Social interactions become challenging and the difficulty in creating new friends as well as adjusting to the fresh surrounding are some of the leading causes that create poor grades as everything necessitates more effort as compared to their prior comfort zones. Based on the loss of power to control things this may create lots of conflicts with their peers which results in isolation. Children have low abilities in adjusting to all the changes and this inability usually creates a sensation of guilt on the ground that they were the source of divorce for being a burden and that they need to amend the relation between their parents (Bryner, 2001).
According to Demo & Acock, (2015), divorce in most cases will result in a child missing out one of the parents who was their role model, confidant, a source of inspiration and the individual who always offered guide when they went wrong. Most of these cases create a missing father which might create a sensation of less importance and deserted on the child. Children have differing ways of expressing divorce feeling and some will opt for rebellious and violent behaviors while others opt on building sexual relations with individuals from intact families to feel incorporated (Bryner, 2001). In addition, divorce creates a negative perception on children in reference to social relation and future marriages since they lose trust so easily which causes relations instability. Trust is lost based on the experience acquired from their parents as they tend to believe that relations are never that important and can be broken at will. Under circumstances where parental marriages are involved in constant conflicts and open arguments children will tend to acquire relief when divorce happens. On the other hand, those that are usually affected are those from families with no obvious or apparent arguments that might have resulted in separation. This, therefore, makes it crucial to ensure that children understand the mutuality of the decision and the fact that they will be supported and are never the divorce causes (Fagan & Churchill, 2012).
Conclusion
Divorce creates a sense of low self-esteem and security threat to the affected children which affects their emotional wellness. This is usually the case because children are never involved in discussions of their thoughts and feelings regarding the matter. A parent should, therefore, spend qualitative and interesting time trying to understand how their children and persuade them to accept the event as a situation in life rather than a challenge. This should not, therefore, incorporate any form of blames amid parents as children should be made to understand that the decision was mutual. In addition, this is the period during which children should be encouraged to engage in more social activities as this creates a distraction, lowers undesirable thinking, increases sharing and improves their self-esteem thus eliminating isolation. Through this, their emotional wellness is sustained thus creating better learning grounds and improving education performances.
References
Amato, P., & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 110(1), 26-46.
Bryner, C. (2001). Children of Divorce. Medical Branch Clinic. CLINICAL REVIEW, 14(3). Retrieved from http://www.jabfm.org/content/14/3/201.full.pdf
David. H. Demo, D., & Alan C. Acock. (2015). the Impact of Divorce on Children. Journal of Marriage and Family, 50(3), 619-648. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/352634
Fagan. P., & Churchill, A. (2012). The Effects of Divorce on Children. Marriage and Religion Research Institute. Retrieved from http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF12A22.pdf
Furstenberg, F., L. Peterson, J., Zill, N., & Winquist Nord, C. (1983). The Life Course of Children of Divorce: Marital Disruption and Parental Contact. American Sociological Review, 48(5), 656-668.
